A controversial Colorado bill that would have carved out an exception to the state’s repair protections for critical infrastructure failed Monday evening after a long, delayed hearing in the House. The State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee voted 7-to-4 to postpone SB26-090 indefinitely, stopping it days after the measure passed the Senate.
The vote preserved a landmark repair law that took effect in January 2026 after being enacted in 2024, giving consumers access to the tools and documentation needed to fix and modify digital electronics such as phones, computers and Wi-Fi routers. The bill would have undone some of those protections for critical infrastructure, a term repair advocates said was defined so loosely it could swallow nearly any technology.
Danny Katz said the broad coalition lined up against the bill helped turn the outcome. “While we were making progress at chipping away at the momentum for it, we had still been losing,” he said. “So, we took nothing for granted, and I believe the incredible testimony from the broad range of cybersecurity experts, businesses, repair advocates, recyclers, and people who want the freedom to fix their stuff made a big difference.”
That coalition showed up in force for the hearing, where dozens of supporters and detractors gave public comments. The bill was introduced during a Colorado Senate hearing on April 2 and passed that chamber on April 16, backed by lobbying efforts from companies including Cisco and IBM. Supporters argued companies should be allowed to keep their security methods secret if that helps protect networks.
Chad Clifford offered one of the hearing’s most memorable defenses of that position. “I don’t know why anybody has to have lava lamps on a wall to keep the Chinese from getting into a network, but it’s what they came up with that worked,” he said. “How they do that, I believe they should be able to keep it a secret, even in Colorado.”
The fight over SB26-090 had become a test case for repair advocates who saw it as a potential opening for technology companies to weaken right-to-repair laws more broadly in the United States. Groups including PIRG, Repair.org, iFixit, Consumer Reports, Blue Star Recyclers, Recycle Colorado, Environment Colorado and GreenLatinos opposed the measure. For now, the defeat leaves Colorado’s repair law intact and sets up a warning for similar efforts elsewhere: the state drew a line, and the committee would not move it.
